Spring is the perfect time to start having family picnics and get-togethers and every family event needs one thing. An awesome dessert. It needs to be light and fluffy and of course, colorful to celebrate and welcome spring! Family get picnics are one of my favorite spring and summer things to do on a warm day and this cake? Is on my list of things to take to every single one. It’s amazing! This awesome rainbow cake recipe fits that criteria and then some! It’s so good that they’ll be asking for your recipe for years to come and the colors? Well? It’s rainbow cake! What more could you want?
The absolutely amazing thing about this rainbow cake recipe is that it can be customized for any occasion, not just spring picnics. When you make your own rainbow cake, you can make it any colors that you want. We went with green and pink/red because that is what we had on hand, but it would look good with pink and blue for a gender reveal party, with green and white for St. Paddy’s day, for pastel pink and yellow for an Easter cake, orange and black for Halloween and more! You could even make each layer a different color for a true rainbow cake! The possibilities are endless! You should know by now that I love anything rainbows. My daughter even plays with rainbows on an almost daily basis so a rainbow cake? Perfect for us!
Rainbow Cake Recipe
We used a can frosting when we made our cake, but you can use any frosting recipe you want. A buttercream frosting would taste simply amazing with this particular cake recipe. You don’t have to add sprinkles on top but here’s my thinking on sprinkles. It’s a rainbow cake. It needs sprinkles. What kind of rainbow cake would it be without sprinkles? It would be a failure…that’s what it would be. A failure at its rainbow caking duties.
Seriously though. Sprinkles are optional.
You Will Need:
- 1 1/2 sticks softened salted butter
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 tablespoon Lorann strawberry flavoring
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- Blue, green, and pink food coloring
- 1 can vanilla frosting (or use your own homemade frosting recipe)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
When you make this cake, you’ll want to use 8″ round cake pans. The number of pans you will need will depend on how many layers you want in your cake. In any case, grease your cake pans. Then, in a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with a hand mixer.
Next, add the milk, eggs, flour and baking powder to the mixing bowl one at a time making sure to mix well after each addition. In other words, add milk, mix. Add eggs, mix and so on. Add in the vanilla and strawberry extract last mixing well after each addition.
Once your batter is fully mixed, separate it in equal amounts into smaller mixing bowls. The number of times you’ll need to separate it will depend on how many colors you want in your cake. To make the colors that we used, separate your batter into two bowls. Add 2 drops of blue and 2 drops of green food coloring to one bowl of batter and 3 drops of pink to the other bowl.
If you’re making a rainbow cake with different colors, add your food coloring 2 drops at a time until you achieve your desired color.
Once you’ve got your desired colors, fill your cake pans with the batter. Smooth out the batter to make sure the layers of your rainbow cake will be even. Bake at 350
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let your cake cool completely on a wire cooking rack. Once they’re cool, take a string of non-minty dental floss and gently slice the tops of each layer off so that they are flat. You can leave the top on the top layer if you’d like but the rest need done so that your rainbow cake isn’t wobbly.
Once you’ve got flat layers, it’s time to stack your cake. Do yourself a favor and transfer everything to your cake stand right now. I didn’t and trust me…it can be a mess if you don’t. Beginning with the bottom layer, add a bit of frosting onto the top and spread it out across the entire layer. Don’t pile on too much but make sure you use enough to act as a “glue” for the layer that will go above it. Repeat with the rest of your layers making sure to alternate colors as you build.
Once your cake is built with the layers you want, frost the top layer and the sides of your cake. Shake sprinkles on top and you’re ready to go! Doesn’t that look amazing?
Rainbow Cake Recipe – Perfect for Spring Celebrations!
Need an awesome spring dessert? This rainbow cake recipe is just the ticket! Light, fluffy and not overly sweet! Plus customize it with any colors you want too!
- 1 1/2 sticks softened salted butter
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 tablespoon Lorann strawberry flavoring
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- Blue (green, and pink food coloring)
- 1 can vanilla frosting (or use your own homemade frosting recipe)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease an 8″ round cake pan for each layer you want in your cake.
- Cream butter and sugar together.
- Next, add the milk, eggs, flour and baking powder to the mixing bowl one at a time making sure to mix well after each addition.
- Add vanilla and strawberry extract one at a time making sure to mix well after each addition.
- Separate batter into small mixing bowls according to how many layers you would like.
- Starting at 2 drops of food coloring, color each bowl of cake batter until you reach your desired colors. Make sure to mix well after every 2 drops.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let each layer cool completely then using unflavored dental floss, slice the top of each layer off to flatten it.
- Spread a small amount of frosting on each layer to act as a “glue” to hold your layers together.
- Build your cake alternating colors in whatever pattern you prefer.
- Frost the top and sides of your cake once all of your layers are attached.